Network Based Webcam Wheel of Fortune Game

ABSTRACT

A network-based webcam wheel of fortune game is disclosed. Images from the participants webcams are positioned on the circumference of a virtual wheel that is displayed to all players and non-playing viewers via their monitors. This wheel is then spun. The winner is for instance the participant whose image this virtual wheel stops on. As a prize, the winner is then broadcast to all participants for a predetermined amount of time, who then vote on the quality of the performance.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Nonprovisional application claiming priority toU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/888,078, filed Feb. 3, 2007,which is herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to multimedia, and more particularly, to asystem, method and apparatus for playing a network based game.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the classic wheel of fortune game, a large wheel spinner is rotatedby an employee of the casino, and gradually loses it's inertia until itstops at one of a plurality of spaces extending around the periphery ofthe wheel. These spaces are generally marked with representations ofmoney to indicate what players have won. There is usually a bettingsurface marked with similar representations of money where users placewagers on where the wheel will stop. This game is compelling because ofthe anticipation generated by the rotating, and slowing wheel.

In recent years, the advent almost ubiquitous high-speed internet accesscombined with a dramatic drop in price of computer-attached cameras orwebcams, and sites like YouTube® facilitating video interchange, hasmade uploading videos simple, accepted, and very popular. It seems thatpeople like to look at each other.

There has also been an explosion in so-called Social Networking andmatchmaking sites like e-Harmony® http://eharmony.com and MySpace®http://myspace.com. These sites facilitate the process of people gettingto know each other. One of the best known ways to get to know someone isby playing a game with them; however this simple method is currentlylargely ignored by these sites at this time.

Rafaeli in U.S. Pat. No. 6,755,741 teaches the use of webcams to allowremote players to participate in a casino games, including roulette.Orak in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,945 discloses an internet game show, andMarnell in U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,363 teaches a combined wheel of fortuneand poker game. Therefore, webcams and network-based casino games areknown, as are varieties of the wheel of fortune.

Even though there are multiplayer games available to play via theInternet known in the art there are currently none which involves usingthe webcam and it's users as the game itself. Therefore a need hasarisen for a game which allows users to participate as themselves usingtheir webcams via the Internet, which also helps people to get to knoweach other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a novelnetwork-based game.

It is also an aim of the present invention to provide a novelnetwork-based wheel of fortune game.

It is a further aim of the present invention to provide a novelnetwork-based wheel of fortune game using webcams to provide pictures ofparticipants on a virtual wheel of fortune.

Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided anetwork-based wheel of fortune game as defined in network-based wheel offortune game, comprising a virtual wheel of fortune wheel displayed toplayers of the game via a network, virtual images of players of thegame, the images being provided on the wheel, the wheel being adapted tobe spun and to select the virtual image of one of the players.

Also in accordance with the present invention, there is provided amethod of playing a wheel of fortune game, comprising (a) providing anumber of players connected via a network, a virtual wheel of fortunewheel displayed to all the players via the network, and virtual imagesof the players located on the wheel; (b) spinning the wheel; (c) andselecting the virtual image of one of the players.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features of the invention will become more apparent in the followingdetailed description in which reference is made to the appended drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a game in accordance with an illustrativeembodiment of the present invention, showing how the game is started andrun; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a user interface for the game.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a webcam wheel of fortune which combines theanticipation embodied by the classic casino wheel of fortune game,combined with the egomania described by Andy Warhol's famous quote “Inthe future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_minutes_of_fame into an exciting socialnetworking experience.

The most basic form of this game is played by an automated croupierspinning the wheel like the wheel of fortune, but instead of a physicalwheel with representations of money, images from the players' attachedwebcams would appear on the circumference of the wheel to be spun.

The game simulates the slowing of the wheel, with appropriate soundeffects if desired, showing subsequent images for longer and longeruntil finally the wheel ‘stops’ on a particular image. The player whoseimage appears is the winner of the round.

In one embodiment, the prize for winning the round is being broadcast toall the other participants for a specified duration, which the user canuse as they see fit; in other words, they get their “15 seconds offame”, which is recorded. This prize has the additional benefit ofhelping the participants to get to know each other, and as such offersan excellent opportunity to be used to create and enhance socialnetworks. Additionally, players and non-participating viewers may voteon the ‘performance’ of the winner. Then using this feedback, the bestand worst performances could be played again at the end of the game, andongoing scores could be preserved to encourage players to keep comingback. The game could also be used as a premise for matchmaking. Notethat other prizes such as money are not only possible, but encouraged.

It is also within the purview of this invention to support multiplevariations on our webcam wheel of fortune theme, for example, winners ofindividual games, or participants with the highest or lowest cumulativevote scores progress to a semi-final type situation where the winners ofthese previous games would make up the elements on the wheel, with thewinner to be voted on, and so on to a final spin where a single,ultimate winner would emerge. This would allow millions of people to beable to participate in the game as viewers, voters, or participants.

Similarly, a reverse-version of the game is likewise envisioned in thatthe player selected by spinning the wheel is ‘out’, the ultimate winnerof the game being the player who was never selected. It is alsoenvisioned that each player removed in this manner would have a chanceto say ‘goodbye’ to the rest of the people playing, and thus receivetheir ‘15 seconds of fame’ as a consolation prize.

In another embodiment, it would be possible for users to influence thespinning of the wheel itself by sending signals created by attachedinput devices such as keyboards, trackballs, mice or other ‘pointingdevices’, or using biofeedback monitors such as the LightStone® sold byWild Divine http://wilddivine.com, etc.

Finally two important elements of the game are the ability to restrictwho can join, and allowing non-playing viewers. The person who createdthe game decides who can play, or watch. This further enhances thesocial networking aspects of the game since the game would then allowthe viewers to get to know the players better as well as letting theplayers get to know each other better. For example, this might be usefulon a dating site where a group restricted to men would be permitted towatch a group restricted to women playing the game, or vice versa.

Now, in accordance with the present invention, in one embodiment of thepresent invention, a network-based webcam wheel of fortune game isdisclosed herein.

The present invention is a wheel of fortune type game played byparticipants via computers with attached and functioning web cameras,connected to a network, generally the internet. Players and non-playingviewers see a virtual wheel, or representation thereof, onscreen, whichconsists of an image or images submitted by each player arranged aroundthe circumference of the wheel in a manner similar to the wheel offortune game found in many casinos. To begin the round, the wheel isspun. As the virtual wheel slows down, the images of the players arevisible for a longer and longer period of time until the wheel stops ona particular image. The person associated with that image wins theround, and is awarded a prize.

Referring therefore to FIG. 1, a flowchart showing basic game play ispresented. The game starts at 101, generally by having a potentialplayer navigate to a URL where the webcam wheel of fortune game isoffered. The user may choose between two options, that is to join anexisting game at 102 (if they are so permitted), or start a new game at103. If the user is allowed to start a new game, the next step is tochoose options at 105, including who may participate. It must beremembered that a purpose of the game is to help people to get to knoweach other; therefore, the person starting the game may choose torestrict players and non-playing viewers according to factors includingbut not limited to availability of a live webcam image, sex (gender),payment of fees, age, sexual orientation, profession, geographiclocation, pre-existing membership in an organization, existingregistration online, etc. Restrictions may likewise be inherited by thegame by virtue of it being accessible only to those people who canaccess a certain URL, etc. Restrictions may likewise be set as to theminimum and maximum number of players, number of rounds in the game, ortime limit, etc., and the operator of a game may likewise remove accessto anyone who is disruptive, etc. Finally, the game operator gives thegame a name, like “Funky Wheel of Love”, so others can find it, andperhaps join in or watch it. The game is then registered and started.

If the user decides he/she wants to join an existing game 102, he/she ispresented with a list of games, like our “Funky Wheel of Love”, anddecides whether or not to join. If he/she chooses not to join anexisting game, he/she is sent back to the option of creating a new gameat 103. Once he/she chooses to join an existing game at 102, he/she thenselects at 104 which of the available games to join, as well as whetherhe/she would like to be a viewer or a participant. The system thenchecks at 106 that the user satisfies whatever criteria have been put inplace for that particular game, which were determined when the game wascreated at 105. If he/she is not permitted to join, he/she is sent backto 103 where he/she gets to start a new game, or join another game.

The next step is to add the user to the game at 107. If the user is aplayer, an image is grabbed from his/her webcam, or other picture, foruse as part of the game, and possibly get permission from the user toallow software to access his/her webcam, as well as choosing a name foruse during the game if the user is not already registered, etc.Non-playing participants would just be provided with a view of the game,and added to the virtual audience for that game.

The system then verifies at 108 if the player was added successfully; ifnot, an error message is displayed at 109, and the user may then attemptto fix the problem, and the system can try to the user later at 107.Otherwise, the user may just leave the game. The option of users leavingthe game is not specifically represented on the flowchart anywhere,since users may drop off at any time, from anywhere, for any reason.

The system then checks at 111 to see if there are enough players, or ifthe game should be ended. This is a general check to see if the game tobe played is within the parameters selected by the user who started thegame at 105. If the minimum number of players is not met, the system canwait, or if the number of players has dropped to 0, the system maychoose to end the game at 114. If the user who started the game hadspecified that the game consists of a specific number of rounds, or atime limit, then these conditions are checked. If met or exceeded, thegame is ended at 114, the best and worst of the player's performancesare shown at 115 and the game is de-registered at 117 so that it can nolonger be played. The game is then over at 120. Otherwise, the systemwaits at 119 for additional players, and then loop backs to 111 to seeif what is needed is there so as to start the game.

Once there are enough players, the round is started at 110. The imagesfrom the each of the currently connected participants are now loadedonto the virtual wheel, and the audience is added. This can be animportant step since users may have joined or left since our last round.In one embodiment, live webcam images from some or all players may bedisplayed on the wheel instead of static images.

The wheel is then spun at 112. This means that the virtual wheel goesfrom appearing static, to being shown as being pulled backwards, i.e.wound up, then released so that it appears to spin at a high rate ofspeed. A variety of music and sound effects may be used here, includingthe well known ‘click, click, click’ made by the original casino wheel.The effect of friction is simulated on our wheel and it gradually (anddramatically) slows down, finally selecting a player at 113, typically awinning player. Note that using live webcam images during the launchphase and slowing phases of our wheel spin is likely to be particularlyeffective as the wheel is moving slowly enough that people can actuallysee each other. Eventually the wheel slows down, landing on an image ofone of our players, who is the winner of the round 113.

The winner is then awarded his/her prize at 116, which in the presentembodiment, is being broadcast to all the other participants for a fixedamount of time; i.e. the winner's 15 seconds of fame, which may bestored for later replay. Other prizes, such as points, money, orcombinations thereof are likewise envisioned. A vote is then taken at118 as to the quality of the winner on a scale of −10 to +10, althoughother scales and inputs may be used. The game then continues at 111. Thevoting results are stored, and at the end of the game (at 114), the bestand worst performances may be rebroadcast at 115 for all to enjoy.Ongoing statistics for players may likewise be kept for allowing thepossibility of larger prizes after winning a certain number of rounds,and as an incentive to keep users coming back.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of the viewer is shown. Theviewer itself is found at 200, and will generally consist of a windowdisplayed within a web browser, although other methods of displaying theviewer may be employed. At 201, there is shown a group of non-playingparticipants watching the game, which are represented herein by littlehappy faces. These symbols may be scattered around the playing area torepresent an audience. In the present embodiment, each person watchingthe game will be denoted by a symbol; in this case a happy face,although any representation may be used. In addition, it is within thepurview of the game that these symbols might use size, color or otherindicia to represent the number of people per symbol, i.e. a red happyface equals 1000 people watching, a blue happy face equals 100 peoplewatching, etc. Thus, 100 red happy faces would indicate that 100,000people are watching a game.

At 202, there is shown a small window containing the image of a user thecurrent user is chatting with, with three other screens directly belowit, again with people chatting. Clicking on a window in the playingarea, the wheel at 206, 207, 208, 209 brings that user to the chat areaand allows the user to chat with them directly and view their image orwebcam, which may be live. The title of the game being played is shownat 203, and in the current example, the title is “funky wheel of love”.

Below the windows at 202 is a text area 204 showing an ongoing chat,presumably, but not limited to, the people in the windows 202 above.Below the text area 204 is a voting area 205 where viewers can rate thewinners on a scale, e.g., from −10 to +10.

In the middle of the window 206, 207, 208, 209 is the game area. Playerimages are arranged in a sort of three dimensional wheel, with theseimages getting larger as they approach the front of the screen, andsmaller as they recede into the background. The images rotate, clockwiseor counter-clockwise, or are otherwise mixed up. For now, the systemuses a wheel that rotates clockwise. In FIG. 2, the results of arecently completed game are displayed, with the winner appearing at 207,and with an area 208 being used for status messages and in this case thetext “WINNER” indicating that our user won and “ROUND 4” indicating thatthis was the fourth round of the game. The player in the window at 206almost won, the wheel went one click too far. Likewise, the user at 209would have won had the wheel clicked over one more space. The actualimplementation of the wheel and the layout may of course vary. Finally,there is a window 210 showing the user's own webcam image, so he/she cansee himself/herself.

The user at 207 will now receive his/her prize, which in the currentembodiment, is for him/her to be broadcast to the rest of the playersand viewers for a predetermined length of time, which can be used as thewinner sees fit. Again, other prizes are certainly possible. Inaddition, viewers and participants can rate the quality of our winnerusing the voting mechanism at 205, which will allow ratings from −10 to+10 although other scales or input methods may be used. The ability ofparticipants to provide feedback adds an interesting incitement forusers to perform their best, or in some cases, worst, and keeping trackof these performances and scores is incentive for users to keep comingback.

Finally, a database of winning performances may be stored and replayedat the end of the game, showing the highest and lowest rated winners. Adatabase of ratings and performances may be kept, allowing users to betracked over time, and possibly receive prizes when certain levels havebeen attained, or when a certain number of games have been won, or acertain amount of time, e.g. a week or month, has passed. It is alsoenvisioned that these performances be made available for users to watchat a later time.

Although the invention has been described with reference to certainspecific embodiments, various modifications thereof will be apparent tothose skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as outlined in the claims appended hereto. The entiredisclosures of all references recited above are incorporated herein byreference.

1. A network-based wheel of fortune game, comprising a virtual wheel offortune wheel displayed to players of the game via a network, virtualimages of players of the game, the images being provided on the wheel,the wheel being adapted to be spun and to select the virtual image ofone of the players.
 2. A network-based wheel of fortune game as definedin claim 1, wherein the wheel is adapted to select the player once thewheel comes to a rest.
 3. A network-based wheel of fortune game asdefined in claim 1, wherein the images of the players are provided onthe circumference of the wheel.
 4. A network-based wheel of fortune gameas defined in claim 1, wherein webcams are provided to allow the payersto see the wheel.
 5. A network-based wheel of fortune game as defined inclaim 4, wherein the images of the players are obtained via the webcams.6. A network-based wheel of fortune game as defined in claim 5, whereinthe images of the players are one of still pictures and live pictures.7. A network-based wheel of fortune game as defined in claim 1, whereinthe game is further displayed via the network to non-playing viewers viamonitors thereof.
 8. A network-based wheel of fortune game as defined inclaim 1, wherein the player selected when the wheel comes to a rest isthe winner of the game.
 9. A network-based wheel of fortune game asdefined in claim 8, wherein the image of the winner is broadcast to allplayers.
 10. A network-based wheel of fortune game as defined in claim9, wherein the image of the winner is broadcast to all players for apredetermined amount of time.
 11. A network-based wheel of fortune gameas defined in claim 1, wherein the players can vote on the quality ofthe performance of the winner.
 12. A method of playing a wheel offortune game, comprising (a) providing a number of players connected viaa network, a virtual wheel of fortune wheel displayed to all the playersvia the network, and virtual images of the players located on the wheel;(b) spinning the wheel; (c) and selecting the virtual image of one ofthe players.
 13. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the wheel isadapted to select the player once the wheel comes to a rest.
 14. Amethod as defined in claim 12, wherein the images of the players areprovided on the circumference of the wheel.
 15. A method as defined inclaim 12, wherein webcams are provided to allow the payers to see thewheel.
 16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the images of theplayers are obtained via the webcams.
 17. A method as defined in claim16, wherein the images of the payers are one of still pictures and livepictures.
 18. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the game isfurther displayed via the network to non-playing viewers via monitorsthereof.
 19. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the playerselected when the wheel comes to a rest is the winner of the game.
 20. Amethod as defined in claim 19, wherein the image of the winner isbroadcast to all players.
 21. A method as defined in claim 20, whereinthe image of the winner is broadcast to all players for a predeterminedamount of time.
 22. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the playerscan vote on the quality of the performance of the winner.